- Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, who opposes a fairer voting system that would make every vote count, has contempt for civil liberties and would prefer a House of Lords of appointed cronies and wealthy donors to an elected chamber.

"Has contempt for civil liberties"?

Over 600 MPs and they somehow finger Davies as an authoritarian? Crikey, they must be ingesting some seriously potent mushrooms. They obviously didn't see this, then.

It's interesting that the Power 2010 initiative has been trailed by Liberal Conspiracy, yet Lib Dem Voice, in their recent investigation, ranked Davies as 451st most authoritarian MP based on criteria they considered important just a week ago.

It would appear that the Devil was spot on in his analysis of Power 2010, and that, on this showing, Liberal Democrat bloggers are probably the most inconsistent out there. Left, right, centre, who gives a chuff who they attack as long as the Lib Dems divert attention from their own quite stunning assaults on liberal ideals.

Voted very strongly against introducing a smoking ban.# Voted very strongly against introducing ID cards.# Voted moderately against Labour's anti-terrorism laws.# Voted very strongly for an investigation into the Iraq war.# Voted very strongly for replacing Trident.# Voted against equal gay rights.# Voted moderately against laws to stop climate change.

It's difficult to see where Power 2010 are coming from. It appears from their web page to be all about House of Lords reform which, funnily enough, was the one proposal that put me off signing up for them.

I don't know why but, against all the laws of logic, everything just seemed to work better when we had 'the other place' stuffed full of hereditaries.

I can't take the LibDims seriously as long as they keep banging on about a “fair” voting system. It's their so-called “fair” system that allowed them to come fourth in the 2003 Scottish election, yet still end up with cabinet ministers (who proceeded to trough like it was going out of style), while the Tories, who were third, didn't. Yeah, fair.

(I have a theory that what all politicians mean by “fair” in any context is “unfair in my or my supporters' favour”.)

Anon 909: That's because the Lords, being hereditary, did not need to bother with thinking about their popularity or trying to get re-elected. Thus they could actually work for what they thought was good for the country. However it is now stuffed with Labour placemen and former MPs.